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KENNETH LOUISO

Messier 45 - Pleiades

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Mars 2018 Global Dust Storm Compilation by Mark Schmidt image

Mars 2018 Global Dust Storm Compilation by Mark Schmidt

Contains: Solar system body or event
Acquisition Details
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Description

At the end of July 2018, Mars was closer to earth than it has been since 2003. Unfortunately for us Mars observers, the dust storm that started at the end of May 2018, ended up spreading around the entire planet and has obscured the entire surface of Mars for several months. This year, for northern hemisphere observers like myself, Mars is also very low in the sky in relation to the horizon. I’ve been imaging Mars on a regular basis since early July. I though it would be interesting to compile a visual representation of Mars so that I could show how the dust storm progressed and changed the normally visible Martian albedo features. I’ve selected an assortment of 21 images from the dozens of images that I acquired and displayed them in order of daily progression starting on July 3rd and ending on August 25th. They represent more than one full revolution of Mars. The “CM” followed by a number in degrees written under each image stands for Central Meridian and is the same as “degrees longitude” on earth. The images were taken using a Celestron 14” Schmidt Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO ASI290MM imaging camera. They are all monochrome images that were taken through a Baader IR685 (infrared passing) filter. The IR filter was used to help penetrate the dust in the Martian atmosphere.